making some stupid mistake painting directly on the avatar in PS CS5 extended

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

Hello..I'm trying to follow Robin Wood's PS CS4 tutorial and also I watched a similar tutorial from Exodus. The problem seems to be, when they paint on the avatar, the texture shows up perfectly, but when I do the same steps, the texture shows up invisible in most places.  I have incuded a picture to show what I mean. I must have something configured wrong or am just missing some simple step.  Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?  Thanks for any suggestions!

By the way...I can load an external texture without a problem I just hid it since that isn't my problem.  It is just painting directly on.  I am using the SL female .obj file.

 

[Chosen Few]

My guess is the OBJ file you imported did not contain UV data.  When there's no UV map present for a model, Photoshop creates its own, and the results are almost never usable.

To test that theory, open up one of the texture PSB files, and click 3D -> Create UV Overlays -> Wireframe.  If the UV's are correct, then the familiar layout from the clothing/skin templates will appear.  If they're incorrect, you'll see some other layout, most likely a jumbled mess.

If it makes things easier for you, Robin's got a set of PSD's with the correct setup already in place.  You can grab them from here website, at http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLDownloads/Exported_CS3_Avatars.zip

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

Thank you Chosen.  I will try that..although I do have those smart PSD files from Robin's website, however, when I open them, they do not create a 3D model. They show up as a flat 2D image just as if you opened any upper or lower template PSD.  Since it did not show up the same for me, I assumed that the tutorial was using an OBJ and just did not mention it.  Is there something I can do to make it appear in the same way an obj would appear?

[Chosen Few]

I assume what you mean by "smart PSD's" are the ones at the bottom of the Avatar UV Templates page on Robin's site.  Those do not contain 3D models.  They've got the UV maps embedded as vector smart objects, so that they can be resized without losing quality.

That's not the link I provided.  Take a look.

 

If you'd rather import the OBJ's yourself than use the ones Robin made, you certainly can.  I'm not sure why the UV data might have been absent from the ones you've got.  Did you get them straight from the SL website, or from somewhere else?  And did you do anything with them in any other program before you brought them into Photoshop?

The avatar mesh files from LL do have the proper UV's in them.  The normals are messed up on some of them, presumably since they were exported from Poser in a funny way, but that's a separate issue.

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

You're right, Chosen.  I'm so sorry..I should have checked the link first before assuming it was where I got the PSDs.  I downloaded my original .obj straight from the SL website.  

I just tried the ones from the link you sent and it is working fine now.  So, there WAS something wrong with the .obj file.  I was going crazy all day and yesterday trying to figure it out.  Thank you so much!

Forgot to answer your question about changing the original .obj file in another program.  No, I didn't do anything to it except bring it into PS.  

[Chosen Few]

Hmm, not sure why it didn't work, then.  Ah, well, at least it's working now.